Club king Birley joins residents in fight against 24-hour Mayfair casino

Against: Robin Birley opposes new casino plans
Rex Features

The “king of clubs” Robin Birley has joined neighbours fighting plans for a casino in Mayfair which he says will “destroy” the area.

Developers have applied to convert a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse in Charles Street into a 24-hour casino, with a new restaurant and a bar.

The property — close to Mr Birley’s exclusive private members’ club 5 Hertford Street — was the former home of flamboyant society hostesses Dame Margaret Greville before being turned into a gentlemen’s club.

It later became the home of society etiquette experts Debrett’s before being turned into offices in the Seventies.

Residents said the conversation is “entirely inappropriate”, will “blight” their community and attract “drugs and prostitution”. They added that a casino would lead to extra traffic through the night, pollution, noise and have a 24-hour impact on families.

16 Charles St. in Mayfair, where the 24-hour casino is intended to go
Google Street View

Mr Birley, the son of Annabel’s founder Mark Birley, said Mayfair is a “very special mix” of businesses while Charles Street is residential. He said: “If you tamper with that mix, and start turning residential streets into busy commercial areas the planners will destroy the nature of the area.”

Most of the properties in the road were built in the 1750s and are a stone’s throw from the embassies of Myanmar and Saudi Arabia in an area where four-bedroom terraced houses sell for more than £7 million.

A campaign group called Mayfair Against Casino Expansion (MACE) is fighting the proposal.

One anonymous resident said: “At present there are numerous people begging and sleeping rough in the area. With high-end clients attending the casino at all hours of the day, this will increase.”

An NHS doctor who lives in the street said: “This is my only home. It is my children’s home. Please do not let it be destroyed.”

A spokesman from the applicant Continuity Capital said they were listening to their neighbours and looking at ways to minimise the impact of the casino.

A decision on the proposal is expected to be made by Westminster council’s planning committee early next year.

The council recently rejected another Mayfair proposal to develop a townhouse next to a church into a 24-hour casino following residents’ protests.

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